History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c62.s4.5

v4.c62.s4.5

On 20th June 1672, Ali Adil Shah II. had a stroke of lateral paralysis, as the effect of excessive drinking. For five months he lingered in bed, and at last, losing all hope of recovery, proposed to crown his son Sikandar, a boy of four, and entrust the regency to his old wazir Abdul Muhammad. The latter declined the task and proposed that Khawas Khan, the Abyssinian chief of the Deccani Muhammadans, should be regent instead, and the kingdom should be divided among the four leading nobles: he himself becoming warden of the north-eastern side (to oppose the Mughals), Bahlol Khan that of the western side (to watch Shivaji), and Muzaffar Khan the viceroy of the southern side (to control the newly conquered Hindus of Mysore, while the regent would hold the capital and the country round it. (B.S. 434-436.)